"There is a place in the prison which is called the Tullianum Dungeon. It is about 12 feet deep in the ground when you have ascended a little to the left.[2] It is secured round the sides by walls, and over it is a vaulted roof, connected with stone arches; but its appearance is disgusting and horrible, by reason of the filth, the obscurity, and the stench. When Lentulus had been let down into this place, certain men, to whom orders had been given, strangled him with a cord." The upper part of the Mamertine Prison was partly rebuilt in the time of Tiberius, as we know from an inscription remaining in the cornice over the flight of steps under the church. C. VIBIUS . C. F. RUFINUS . M. COCCEIUS . NERVA . COS . EX . S. C. Consuls A.D. 23. It seems to have been used exclusively for state prisoners. We have records of the following, amongst others, who were confined here:-- Manlius, who had defended the Capitol against the Gauls.--B.C. 382. Quintus Pleminius, a prisoner for sedition.--B.C. 194. Jugurtha, King of Numidia, who was starved to death B.C. 104. He exclaimed, when cast in, "By Hercules! how cold is this bath of yours!" (Plutarch, in "Caius Marius"), evidently speaking of the spring as existing in those days. Catiline conspirators, strangled by order of the Consul Cicero.--B.C. 55. Vercingetorix, King of the Gauls, by order of Julius Cæsar. Sejanus, the minister of Tiberius.--A.D. 31. Simon, the son of Giora, the defender of Jerusalem against Vespasian.--A.D. 69. In the centre of the upper chamber is the round aperture, covered by a grate, down which the prisoners were cast. Juvenal says: "Happy ages of the just, happy centuries, it may be said, those which saw, formerly under the kings, as under the tribunes, Rome content with one prison." One prison may have been enough in those times when it was against the law to confine a Roman citizen before he was tried. We have records of other prisons. Appius Claudius constructed a prison for common offenders near the Forum Olitorium, the scene of "Roman Charity." (See page 190.) Pliny mentions "_Stationes Municipiorum_"--barracks of the municipal soldiers--near the Forum of Julius Cæsar. These may likewise have been prisons. In addition to these, there was the _Lautumiæ_. _Below_ the church, the Chapel of the Crucifixion occupies part of the buildings of the prison, and from the sacristy a flight of modern steps leads down into a lower cell, the Chapel of SS. Peter and Paul. The entrance and steps from the street are also modern. In this chamber, to the right of the altar, is a closed-up passage; it evidently communicated with other chambers. On the tufa, carefully guarded by iron bars, an indentation is shown which, they say, was caused by the jailers beating Peter's face against the rock. (He must have had rather a hard head!)